The Stop Button
blogging by Andrew Wickliffe
Category: Superman
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Writer Mindy Newell gives Lois Lane a serious story to cover–a murdered child–which sends her into an obsessive panic. Newell shows not just Lois’s investigative work, but also how the pursuit affects her and those around her. The Gray Morrow art is elegant and disturbing. It’s a perfect combination; he’s able to handle the talking…
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Pulitzer Prize-winning–not to mention gainfully employed–journalist Lois Lane thinks in hackneyed phrases like “a thief in the night.” About the only nice thing to say about Lois Lane–her first comic to herself in almost twenty years–is I like how writer Marguerite Bennett keeps the misspelling thing from Superman: The Movie. Sure, it might be a…
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Perez spends the first three or four pages recapping Action Comics. Because it seems likely someone buying Superman isn’t buying Action. Yeah, sure. But then Perez fills the issue with content–Superman’s big action sequence isn’t even until the second half–and Nicola Scott isn’t up to the detail. Overall, the art isn’t bad. When reading a…
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Almost nothing happens this issue. Clark has a nightmare of Krypton (where we learn of some new menace who can follow him to Earth), he argues with the cops and then Lois. He’s got a “Deep Throat” source too. It’s kind of hilarious how Morrison writes a thirties crusading reporter in the modern newspaper age.…
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What is the deal with Merino’s Clark Kent… and, to a lesser degree, his Superman? Clark looks like an eighties beach bum with the bouffant hairdo and then Superman looks like he’s fourteen. I know the new DC Universe is younger and hipper… but Superman should at least be old enough for a cigarette. And…
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Oh, good grief. Really, all Grant Morrison can come up with is Lex Luthor unknowingly working with Brainiac? Did he even come up with it, or did he just watch the pilot to “Superman: The Animated Series?” I’m trying to be open minded about Action, especially with Brent Anderson coming onboard as Morales falls behind,…
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The “Ultimatizing” of the DC relaunch continues… with Samuel L. Jackson as the new Morgan Edge. Sorry, cheap shot, but Superman is the first book where there’s an effort to make the DCU more diverse. I was looking forward to this comic because I figured George Perez could write a decent Superman comic and he…
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Well, this one is certainly disappointing. Morrison’s fresh take on Superman—a young Superman, so young he’s practically just Superboy without Krypto—is problematic. But it’s the first issue and one would usually give Morrison time to get things sorted. But Action doesn’t remind of All-Star or anything good Morrison’s written. In fact, it doesn’t remind of…
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I didn’t even know Louise Simonson wrote Superman in the nineties because, as I understood it, Superman was awful in the nineties until the late nineties. If this Retroactive issue is any indication, Simonson’s Superman is pretty miserable. Forgetting about how stupid a bunch of the details are—Cadmus Project, Underworlders, I mean… come on, Superman…
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What a terrible comic book. Marv Wolfman’s writing is so lame, I’ll never even have time to mention how Sergio Cariello isn’t a particularly good artist. So, if you’re unaware, Crisis on Infinite Earths is the most important thing in the world and Wolfman wrote it. If you are unaware, this comic will let you…
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Was Jim Shooter paying himself by the word, because I don’t think I’ve ever read more exposition in a comic book. It’s terrible exposition too, but I suppose the sentences are grammatically correct. For the most part. But what I can’t figure out is the artwork. The combination of John Buscema on pencils and Joe…
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It’s too bad this one doesn’t work out better, but at least it fails in an interesting way. Superman and Spider-Man simply can’t work together. It’s not so much the problems with them not matching powers—Lex Luthor zaps Spidey with some red Kryptonite powers to even the odds at one point—it’s the characters themselves, they’re…
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So after making everyone wait for months, DC put out this piece of crap? I mean, it’s not terrible, but it’s garbage. Frank’s artwork is visibly hurried, with Superman looking different in every other panel and the Christopher Reeve likeness looking traced when he uses it here. Lois looks funny, more of the hurrying. As…
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Ok, so Johns finally did something completely unexpected. He made Superman the Hulk. General Sam Lane–I think that’s Lois’s father’s name anyway–is a psycho warmonger who tries to kill Superman. Funny how John Byrne is known for Superman and the Hulk and Johns is playing with both here. There’s some decent character scenes, not as…
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Maybe I’ve surrendered. Johns doesn’t introduce anything new to the canon this issue, instead he just does a sequel to the previous issue. The Gary Frank Parasite is hideously wonderful too. But back to Johns. He does a decent job this issue. Sure, he’s set up a disastrously bad idea, but once he’s writing in…
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If watching Richard Donner’s director’s cuts have taught me one thing, it’s Donner probably shouldn’t have final cut. His director’s cut of Lethal Weapon, for example, is atrocious. He adds about nine minutes to Superman and, much like Coppola’s revision of Apocalypse Now, it’s a testament to the original film it can weather the additions.…
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DC never did a formal adaptation of the first Superman movie, so Johns gives it a shot here, with some modernizing and some adjustments for comic book continuity. The result, I suppose, depends on if you like the first Superman movie. Even with the silly Lex Luthor is a power mad bad guy (from Byrne)–it…
The Stop Button 